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Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons has emerged as perhaps one of the top players in the NBA since entering the league and often presents a difficult challenge for the opposition.
Simmons demands quite a bit of attention on the court and that has even helped open up things for his teammates. Matisse Thybulle recently said he has never played with anyone like Simmons before, which has helped him tremendously as a rookie this season.
Thybulle, who has emerged as a strong defender on his own right, also expressed his gratitude to Lauren Rosen of Sixers.com that he does not have to face Simmons and felt bad for those teams that do have to play the Sixers.
I’ve never [played with someone like Ben]. Someone who demands so much attention – it opens up shooters like me, and guys like Joel in the post, because when [Ben] has the ball, five guys have to have their eyes on him, worried about him. It makes a lot of our jobs off the ball a lot easier. I feel bad for other teams, I would not want to guard him. [In preseason], we both made life pretty hard for each other. He’s the perfect athlete – he’s tall, he’s athletic, he’s strong.
Since debuting with the Sixers in 2017, Simmons has become a two-time NBA All-Star and was the 2017-18 NBA Rookie of the Year. He has a strong chance to add to those accomplishments this year in the end-of-season awards race.
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